


Black Swift

by SuperSof



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Arkham (Video Games), Under the Red Hood
Genre: Action, Angst, But Awesome, Dick is a good big brother, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, I did a lot of research though, I don't know much about DCU, I just love the Batfamily, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Romance, Sleep Deprivation, Slow Burn, Teasing, Wayne kids bonding, almost an AU, and a nap, and the batboys, and the batgirls, batfamily, deep down Bruce is a good dad, go on patrol is hard, lots of coffee
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-14 23:32:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16050839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperSof/pseuds/SuperSof
Summary: Gotham is a rough city, home to the most dangerous criminals and villains. Its own population has scars of their wrongdoings. Everybody’s used to murders, robberies, kidnappings and even worse things. But there is place for hope in here. The darkest city has its own knights who help keep, even if just a little, peace.It will not last, it never does.All I see is ashes floating to the ground as rain. The fire consumed everything I once loved. Everything I worked so hard to have. All lost in a split second. I arrived too late. Glass cracks under my feet, as I walk inside the building, what is left of it. I try to find something, but there is nothing left. I can hear his laugh. He’s here. He knows who I am.Hope and light will fade in darkness, and all of that starts with the rise of the Black Swift.





	Black Swift

I was always told to be careful, to keep myself safe at all cost, to run when I see danger. Just like everyone in this city. Every gothamite priories their own life, before someone else’s. When you need help, no one stops. It’s too dangerous. I can’t blame them. I used to think the same way. Now, here I am punching a guy on the face in a dark, humid alley. Of course, I don’t have any fancy equipment such as Batman’s, only pair of jeans, an old hoodie and a very improvised mask. I can assure, nevertheless, that I am not crazy. I know that there are more capable people out there. And I know this city doesn’t need me, in theory. But the unconscious guy in the alley tells me the complete opposite. If it wasn’t me, this thug would get away with robbing and hurting the scared girl who ran when I appeared. The city vigilantes can’t be at all places at once. That’s why I’m here, to prevent people to get hurt, because Batman or any of the others are too occupied helping someone else. When there is no one, there is me.  
\---  
My eyes shot open with the ring of my cellphone. The name and picture of Clara taking over the screen. I answer the call, while I fight against my wish to stay I bed. My body hurts from all the physical effort from last night. “Jean? Where are you? I don’t have my keys” Clara sounded worried, her voice higher than usual. I rush into the bathroom to get ready but I just find my homemade suit on the floor, I grab it with my free hand. The mask and boots are missing.  
“I’ll be there in a few minutes, Clara. Nate might be on his way as well, just wait for him, he has the keys” My voice sound more tired than I thought it would and I can hear her sigh over the phone, as I was throwing the suit on my closet.  
“Just, don’t take too long, boss” she hangs up the call and I run to the bathroom, to take a fast bath and brush my teeth. I can’t be the one to arrive late at the café. I’m supposed to be the boss, I’m the owner of that damn thing. Dad would never arrive late at the café, he would have arrived at least one hour earlier. He wouldn’t go outside at night to fight bad guys, either. But here I am, waking up with pain all over me from doing that exact thing. I just didn’t want let him down.  
I get out of the bathroom, after a few minutes and all I can think about is my mask. Where is that damn ugly mask? I put on the first clean outfit I found and rush to the living room to look for my other stuff. I find the boots in front of the door and the mask, in the middle of the coffee table in the living room. I grab them and run back to the closet, finally hiding everything in its usual spot. I go back to rushing through my tiny little apartment and take my bag and coat out of the hanging station near the entrance. With a sigh, I leave the apartment, finally ready to start a new day. Well, not exactly ready, but as ready as I can be.  
I run all my way to the café, which is just a few blocks from my apartment. It’s already the open hour of the Corner and I really hope that Nate managed to arrive before me. I can finally see the sign from where I am, through the window I can see that there are already a few clients inside and that Clara is talking to Nate on the counter. The Café Around the Corner is, just as the name says, just around the corner and as I arrive, I stop to catch my breath. Clara hands me a mug filled with coffee and I send her a funny look. “You need it. Trust me, you don’t want to sleep in the counter in front of everyone, do you?” She says, putting it on the counter in front of me.  
“Okay, I’ll just put my stuff away” defeated, I walk to the back-store employee’s room, and leave there my bag and coat. I put on my apron and name tag before returning to Clara and my coffee mug. I take a sip on it and the horrid flavor of the coffee takes over my mouth. At least it will keep me awake. I know, it’s very ironic that the coffee shop owner hates coffee, but there is nothing I can do. Clara goes back to attending the tables and I take over the cash register. Nate is still here, judging me with his eyes.  
“Don’t you have deserts to make?” I turn to him, looking directly into his eyes.  
“I’m just wondering what you were doing all night. It’s clear that you haven’t get any sleep, Jean” Nate is my cousin and a very talented patisserie chef. He’s my associate in the Corner and thanks to his baking skills and my managing, the business is doing great. The only problem is that Nate thinks he is my older brother and persists on worrying too much about me.  
“I was reading” I answer with the first thing that came into my mind. I could be truth, though. I never was that kind of reader but, how would he know?  
“All night long?” he raises an eyebrow at my answer. Okay, that was a bad excuse, I guess.  
“I had to finish that book, it was super exciting” he laughs and then leaves to the kitchen. I hate to lie to him, and to anyone, but I just can’t let him know about my new job, the other one, he would freak out. It’s the same with Clara. She’s my friend for a long time now and I can’t deal with both knowing about that. I have to get used to living both parts of my life, separately. Learn how to make good excuses, stop waking up too late and start to wear clothes that doesn’t look like pajamas.  
I take another sip on my coffee, the bitterness of it keeping me awake more than the caffeine is. Through the window I can see people passing by, walking on the street fast, always caring only about themselves, never even admiring the day or the city. Gotham can be a beautiful place sometimes, even when the sky is gray, the architecture of this city is absolute stoning, with its historical buildings and even the newer ones. I wonder how it is like to see everything from up there, different from the other vigilantes in the city, I don’t have a grappling hook, so I don’t risk to go too tall. My parkour abilities came all from internet videos and by luck, I never broke anything. I started in the other job just a month ago, but I believe I’ll get the hang of it.  
More clients come in and I snap out of my daydreams with the sound of the bell on the door. With a smile on my face I put down my mug to get back to work. It was almost lunch time so the coffee would soon be full of people wanting to buy sandwiches, drinks and desserts. People come from all around Gotham for our desserts. Nate is just that good, I’m so proud of my not-so-little cousin.  
\---  
As the lunch time passes, the Corner becomes empty like a desert and all those people returns to their offices and workspaces, leaving only dirty tables behind. I leave my place on the cash register to help Clara clean them. It is a task we’re used to do, so it shouldn’t take long for us to finish. We dived the tables and started the work.  
The rest of the day was just like any other, people coming and going, Clara and I cleaning tables and switching posts and Nate making he’s desserts and sweets. Nothing extraordinary. Clara left right when I was getting ready to close the café. She has an essay to finish for college and I wasn’t the one to keep her in from doing it. She basically covers the Saturday shifts and the afternoons on week days. She’s a very dedicated student and I’m going to let her job get in the way of her degree in art-history. We met in college, in our first day of classes. I gave up after a few months, but I don’t like to talk about it, and Clara is firm as steel there. University of Gotham is a really well-known college and it’s really hard to get in. She moved from Brazil just to study here, after getting a really high scholarship. She’s a really smart girl, if you ask me.  
“So, I told her that I was a pastry chef and she laugh at me. Laugh. Can you believe that?” Nate likes to tell me all about his dates, most of them turns out to be huge failures or weird. This one was the first case. I’m locking the front door and Nate is waiting for me, leaning against the wall. “You know, I have just decided to give up on dates. They never work. I’ll be a cat owner, that makes pastries. Or I could go to France and get a cat there”  
“Nate, don’t be so dramatic” I shove the keys into my coat and put my hands into his high shoulders. Holding a laugh, I only manage to say “You will find someone. And she might be closer than you think” he looks funny at me, showing me his tongue. Pretending to be offended I start to walk away, only to look back. “Goodbye, Nate! I love you! Stay safe!”  
“Love you too! Don’t get into trouble, Jean” I laugh under my breath, as I begin to walk home. That is something I can’t assure, but he doesn’t need to know that.  
I didn’t stop walking until I reached my tiny one-bedroom apartment where I could finally get ready to go on patrol. Never imagined that would be waiting the whole day to feel adrenaline rushing through my veins. Maybe I am getting addicted to it. What can I do? The trilling sensation underneath my skin is amazing. I eat my dinner and rush to my closet to get myself ready. Boots and mask on place, I run to the living room and get out through the emergency stairs. It’s time to start my shift on my other job.  
\---  
“Did you lock your keys inside the car, sir?” I said to the guy trying to open that car with a piece of wire. Other two were waiting for him to open it, all three of them emanating tension out of their bodies. All of them stop whatever they were doing and turn their attention to me. “Oh, this isn’t your car, is it?” Two of them run away from me, leaving the third one behind. He points the wire towards me, attempting to look intimidating. I Just laugh and start to walk slowly to him. “Seriously? You couldn’t even open that door with it…”  
The closer I get, the more I can see that he is just a kid. Not more than twelve years old and all I did was stop. I can’t do anything to him, he’s just a kid. Probably one of the kids from Crime Alley. He is just a kid. “I don’t want to see you or your friends doing this kind of thing ever again, do you hear me?” I look straight into his eyes as he drops the wire and run in the same direction his friends just did. I take a deep breath before walking in the opposite direction. This is the first time I see kids trying to rob.  
Everyone in this city thinks that helping is more dangerous than doing nothing. That their lives worth more than those kids’ and anybody else. Gotham’s elite are the worst, I’m sure they are. The Wayne family, for an example, I bet all those philanthropy projects are just to build an image, to show everyone how good they are. But I bet, none of them cares. Bruce Wayne might have adopted all those kids but, it doesn’t mean he cares about the city. If I could, I would help the Narrows and all the East End. The Mayor tends to ignore that side of the city, I heard that there are parts without energy or proper water treatment. I know that, punching criminals isn’t enough, but it’s all I can do for Gotham. I don’t have money or influence, just a café in Midtown and that is not enough either.  
I just don’t want to give up on this city, or in its people. I might sound to hopeful, but I tend to see the bright side of things. I’m a Summers after all, and we always seek to the light where no one else does, on the darkest places.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it.  
> I'm so excited! This is my first story here on AO3 and if you liked it, please leave a comment, it would mean the world to me.  
> See you the next chapter,  
> Sof


End file.
